Statin prescribing: is the reality meeting the expectations of primary care?

Two surveys were carried out to look at statin prescribing in UK general practice. The first was a study of the Mediplus prescribing database in relation to coronary heart disease (CHD) patients prescribed a statin. The second was a postal survey of the attitudes and beliefs about statin prescribing among general practitioners (GPs) who had contributed to this database. Results showed that despite 80% of GPs believing they had achieved target cholesterol levels (< 5 mmol/L) in 80% of their CHD patients, this was initially only achieved in 65% of patients, rising to 78% after titrations and switching. Only 46% of patients achieved a chol-esterol reduction of 25%, which increased to 56% after titrations and switching.